The Influence of Negative Orthographic Neighborhood in the Lexical Decision Task: Valence and Arousal Contributions

This study investigated whether the visual recognition of neutral words might be influenced by the emotional dimensions (i.e., valence and arousal) of orthographically similar lexical representations, and whether this might also depend on emotional-related traits of participants (i.e., alexithymia). To this end, 108 participants performed a lexical decision task with 80 neutral words with a higher frequency orthographic neighbor that varied in valence (from neutral to negative) and arousal (from low to high). The main finding was the expected interaction effect between the valence and arousal of the neighbor on the lexical decision times of neutral stimulus words. Longer reaction times were found when the valence score of the neighbor decreased from neutral to negative for words with a low-arousal orthographic neighbor while this emotional neighbor effect was reversed for words with a high-arousal negative neighbor. This combined influence of the valence and arousal of the neighbor was interpreted in terms of increased lexical competition processes and direct influence of the affective system on the participant’s response. Moreover, this interaction effect was smaller when the level of alexithymia of the participants increased, suggesting that people with a higher level of alexithymia are less sensitive to the emotional content of the neighbor. The results are discussed within an interactive activation model of visual word recognition incorporating an affective system with valence and arousal dimensions, with regard to the role of the alexithymia level of participants.

Discriminative and affective touch converge: Somatosensory cortex represents A-beta input in a CT-like manner

Current theory divides the human mechanical sense into discriminative and affective systems. A discriminative system supports tactile exploration and manipulation via fast A-beta signaling, whereas an affective system supports the pleasure of friendly interpersonal touch via slow CT signaling. To probe this system segregation, we recorded the electroencephalogram from participants being stroked and reporting stroke pleasantness. We observed a somatosensory negativity that was maximal for CT optimal as compared with sub-optimal velocities, that predicted subjective pleasantness, and showed only for stroking of hairy skin known to be CT innervated. Importantly, the latency of this negativity preceded C fiber input to the brain by several hundred milliseconds and is best explained by interactions between CT and A-beta processes in the spinal cord. Our data challenge the divide between discriminative and affective touch implying instead that both fast A-beta and slow CT signaling play an important role in tactile pleasure.

Effect of Employees’ Perceived Green HRM on Their Workplace Green Behaviors in Oil and Mining Industries: Based on Cognitive-Affective System Theory

Drawing on cognitive-affective system theory, this study proposes that employees’ perceived green human resource management (HRM) influences employees’ workplace green behaviors through two psychological processes: the cognitive and the affective route. By analysing 358 questionnaires collected from Chinese firms in the oil and mining industry, we obtain evidence in support of our predictions, finding that employees’ perceived green HRM positively impacts their voluntary workplace green behaviors and green creativity. Additionally, green psychological climate and harmonious environmental passion are found to partially mediate the relationship between employees’ perceived green HRM and voluntary workplace green behavior while harmonious environmental passion is found to fully mediate the relationship between perceived green HRM and green creativity. These findings shed light on the importance of green HRM in shaping employees’ proactive workplace green behaviors and uncover how green HRM transforms employees’ cognitive, affective, and motivational (CAM) factors into green actions.

Affective Arousal Links Sound to Meaning

Prior investigations have demonstrated that people tend to link pseudowords such as bouba to rounded shapes and kiki to spiky shapes, but the cognitive processes underlying this matching bias have remained controversial. Here, we present three experiments underscoring the fundamental role of emotional mediation in this sound–shape mapping. Using stimuli from key previous studies, we found that kiki-like pseudowords and spiky shapes, compared with bouba-like pseudowords and rounded shapes, consistently elicit higher levels of affective arousal, which we assessed through both subjective ratings (Experiment 1, N = 52) and acoustic models implemented on the basis of pseudoword material (Experiment 2, N = 70). Crucially, the mediating effect of arousal generalizes to novel pseudowords (Experiment 3, N = 64, which was preregistered). These findings highlight the role that human emotion may play in language development and evolution by grounding associations between abstract concepts (e.g., shapes) and linguistic signs (e.g., words) in the affective system.

The Factor of Main Characters’ Consumer Behavior in Toy Story and Toy Story 2

This thesis aims to know why the main characters of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 do excessive consumption on toys. Therefore, I will use the theory of consumer behavior to be applied on Andy, Sid, and Al as the consumers of toys. From this theory, I want to show that consumer behavior can be seen from internal and external traits. The internal trait means the consumer behavior is influenced by the inner side of consumers. On the other hand, the external trait means the consumer behavior is triggered by the outside factor of consumers’ surroundings. I connected the analysis with consumer behavior theory by discussing the factors which have internal and external traits that cause the main characters to have consumer behavior. In the end, it can be concluded from Toy Story (1995), and Toy Story 2 (1999) that consumer behavior can influence children or adult for doing excessive consumption as the consumers of toys. Keywords: Affective System, Cognitive System, Characteristic, Consumer Behavior, Consumption.